Boys, showers and 'don't tell your mum money'

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Michael Jackson looks out from the court during a break in the trial.Photo: Reuters

Michael Jackson's defence against child sex charges has taken a
fresh blow with his former maid telling a jury how she had caught
him in the shower with an Australian boy.

The woman, whose son tearfully told jurors in Santa Maria,
California, that he was groped three times by Jackson between the
ages of seven and 10, also said she once found the star and her son
in a sleeping bag in a darkened room.

She told jurors of an alleged incident in 1989, when she found
Jackson and an Australian boy aged seven or eight showering
together as she entered the star's bathroom at his Neverland ranch,
not realising anyone was in.

"I walked in and they were in the shower," she said.

"When I saw it, I saw clothes on the floor by the shower ...
underwear," the former maid said, adding she recognised the
underclothes of Jackson and the boy.

She admitted having once told lawyers she had not actually seen
the two in the shower, but insisted yesterday she did see their
outlines in the fogged-up shower, and heard their voices.

The former housekeeper also said she had seen the Australian in
bed with Jackson twice. On one occasion she could see that the two
were naked from the waist up, but could not tell whether they were
wearing pyjama bottoms as they were partly under the sheets.

She said children frequently slept in Jackson's bedroom at his
Neverland Ranch and that she often found their clothes discarded in
the room.

The woman also said one of the boys who slept in Jackson's
bedroom was former Home Alone child movie star Macaulay
Culkin who would stay over at Neverland when he was aged eight or
nine. Culkin has said he was never abused by Jackson.

The prosecution plans to present testimony about two more boys
Jackson allegedly molested in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Jackson is on trial for allegedly fondling a 13-year-old
boy two years ago, but Judge Rodney Melville has allowed the
prosecution to present the five prior allegations to determine
whether there was a pattern of abuse.

Jackson's legal team had hoped yesterday to discredit
devastating testimony offered the previous day by the maid's now
24-year-old son, who emotionally told jurors how he was groped by
the superstar as a child.

The witness said Jackson had first fondled him when he was seven
or eight and repeated the abuse twice more over a three year period
ending in 1990.

Defence lawyer Thomas Mesereau tried desperately to highlight
discrepancies in the young man's various accounts of the alleged
abuse.

"It was an issue when I was 13. I didn't want to tell anybody
that I'd been molested because it's weird," the auto parts salesman
said, explaining why he told detectives in 1993 that the star never
molested him.

He repeatedly said he could not remember details of the
interviews.

The man also said he had never even told his wife of the alleged
abuse, which he said had seriously traumatised him, and that she
learned of it only when he testified on Monday.

The witness' mother -- who in 1994 won a settlement from Jackson
on behalf of her son worth a reported $2.6 million -- offered
further damaging claims about the star's behaviour with
children.

The former maid also described how she once found her son lying
in a sleeping bag with Jackson on the floor of his Los Angeles
apartment in the late 1980s.

"I was concerned for my son," she said. "I saw things before
that with little kids."

The woman also said Jackson had given her son two US$100 bills,
which the boy told jurors on Monday was "don't tell your mom
money."

She also said she had seen young children in the bathtub and in
the jacuzzi with Jackson, but admitted she had never actually seen
the star sexually molesting anyone.

Jackson has denied 10 charges, including molestation,
serving a young cancer survivor alcohol and conspiring to hold him
and his family against their will two years ago.